Fluid intensifiers that is, devices that will provide an increased or intensified fluid pressure at the expense of a flow, are known.
One example of a prior art fluid intensifier is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,296,647, the aggregate disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by a reference. That device broadly includes a driving piston, a driven or pump piston, a reversing valve, and a lost-motion connection. Certain end-of-stroke sensors are operatively arranged to automatically reverse the driving piston in order to provide intensified output pressure on either stroke. However, the device shown in the '647 patent is comparatively large and cumbersome, and therefore expensive. Moreover, this device appears to use four-way control valves in association with an equal-area driving piston. By this later term, it is meant that the piston has equal-areas on its opposite faces.
Accordingly, it would be generally desirable to provide an improved fluid intensifier of simpler design, which allows the use of unequal-area pistons and three-way control valves.